Article 3 Duties In carrying out its activities, the Secretariat has the following duties: a) To ensure the specialized technical assistance required for the Secretary for Human Rights and Justice to fulfill his mandate; b) To contribute to fostering and protecting human rights and to strengthen sound governance policy, especially by receiving, investigating, mediating and resolving complaints, developing monitoring, prevention, educational and promotional activities, preparing reports and submitting opinions on the compliance of the acts with the law, developing and reviewing public policies and laws in the relevant area and intervening in court cases in accordance with the duties of the Secretary for Human Rights and Justice, as provided for in the law; c) To provide assistance to the Secretary by establishing collaboration and coordination mechanisms with other State departments; d) To guarantee public access to the services of the Secretary for Human Rights and Justice at the local, regional and national level; e) To represent the Secretary for Human Rights and Justice before the courts and the National Parliament, whenever assigned to do so; f) To exchange experiences with similar institutions in other countries; g) To prepare and implement annual and multi-year plans, including strategic plans; h) To ensure the development and implementation of an internal appraisal system for monitoring the performance and the impact of the activities undertaken in carrying out the mandate of the Secretary; i) To organize and provide nationwide administrative and logistics services to the Secretariat while fostering the implementation of the measures needed to manage these; j) To implement the budget allocated under the General State Budget; k) To control the financial performance of the Secretariat’s specific budget, when applicable;